OSHA’s fall 2017 regulatory agenda, which was published in December, projects that the agency will finalize a rule modifying standards for occupational exposure to beryllium and beryllium compounds in construction and shipyards by September 2018. The affected standards were published as part of a beryllium rule on Jan. 9, 2017.
OSHA is proposing to revoke ancillary provisions such as housekeeping and personal protective equipment for the construction and shipyard industries. An OSHA news release from June 2017 describes the ancillary provisions as “limited to a few operations” within the construction and shipyard industries and potentially “redundant with overlapping protections in other standards.”
OSHA does not intend to change the permissible exposure limit for beryllium of 0.2 µg/m3 averaged over eight hours. The proposal would also maintain the new short-term exposure limit for beryllium of 2 µg/m3 over a 15-minute sampling period.